Had to go shoot the Triumph today... it was not in the plan or on the schedule - but I could not handle it standing there never been shot.
Measured out 20 loads of BH - 73 grains each - should be somewhere near 110 grains by volume. Stuck the powder in tubes - packed the tubes in the shooting gear loaded up and headed to the farm.
The PLAN was to sight in the scope + check to see if the old TASCO was still working. Bore sighted it last night and the gun was cleaned so I was sure I was ready to go. I also wanted to get some velocities - so I grabbed the pro-chrono and head out. It was a beautiful day 18 degrees and 3 inches of new snow over night - just had to go shoot. The only thing wrong with the plan - 20 shots was not enough - should measured out another 20...
Got to the farm and got everything setup. I had already decided that I was going to shoot the 200 grain XTP's and a Harvester 'CR' sabot just to get use to shooting this new gun. I know this bore is tighter than any other 50 I have - I can not even get a 2 1/2 patch down and back out without a struggle - I have to use 2" patches. I had pushed some sabot/bullet combinations through the bore yesterday and felt prety good about the CR's going down - but that was on a clean bore.
I popped 4 Cheddite primers (another planned experiment) through the BP then patched the barrel. Loaded first round and headed to the bench. Now remember this is a new gun and a new gun to me... but I do remember thinking to myself as I am trying to get #1 off - 'wow this trigger pull is a little more than I thought' - I think it is a little tighter than my Omega. - Well #1 went boom as planned and it was instantaneous - as all shots all day were with the Cheddites, they worked very well. I just now pulled the breech plug (no problem) and checked the flash channel no sign of any build up in the channel and the flash hole is open. OOPS my eyes were fooled - just ran one of my hand drills in the flash channel and there was some build up not much but some.
I will tell you the first round loaded about as I expected - very tight but I was comfortable loading it. Now the shots after that - they were really tight to get down even with a range rod - but the bore is new and will loosen up a little at some point.
I shoot nine 200 grain shots at the target, got comfortable with the gun, and the scope. Then I decided to switch up and go to the Gold Dots one because I wanted to shoot a heavier bullet and two because I thought the MMP 3p might be easier to load.... NOT. Anyway took 3 shots on target and by that time I was bored shooting paper so I switched to shooting tuffs in the snow at longer ranges...
Here is the target from tadays adventure...
Next up is a group of pictures showing the starting setup - the breech area after 20 shots - I was amazed how clean it was - course I really do not understand why but I do not care it is clean... and the last pic show a recovered 250 Gold from my 100 yard shot on a tuff of weeds - The field is has been thowed and is saturated soil so I was able to dig back into the ground 6-7 inches and find the bullet. Scrubbed it up in the sink and got a picture.
My last two shot I accepted my challenge - right near the ridge top of the draw was another tuffed target. It lasered 235 yards from the bench. Shot #19 was a 250 grain Gold Dot. I held on the tuff with the first Mil-Dot under the regular cross hairs - you can maybe see the shot and little low and left. Next I loaded a 10mm 200 XTP and this time I held right on the tuff with the cross hairs... Left of the target again - I was not allowing for the wind up near the ridge top.
I am not sure this pic is going to show up well enough for you to see my shots - but here it is...
After this trip to the farm - I can easily confirm that I have found another rifle that can shoot better than I can. I think I am beginning to like this Triumph thing - especially if the bore loosens a little so that it becomes a viable hunting gun.
Sorryabout the pics - they just do not post well on this site...
